~ Living the Dream

Cruising Friends

We left Marathon this morning after one final Happy Hour with our good friends Dan and Kath on S/V Majiks. We met them in the summer of 2013 in Vero Beach and immediately made a lasting connection with these wonderful folks who have been cruising the east coast and Bahamas for several years. They recently bought a Gulfstar 50, a sister vessel to Firefly and have shared the “2 Boat Blues” with us as they try to sell their previous vessel. It was painful saying goodbye so we left it with “see you later” as we dinghied back to Firefly to make final preps for our morning departure.

As we departed Marathon the next morning and crossed under the Seven Mile Bridge we talked about all of the good times we’ve shared with Dan and Kath, we were interrupted by a hail from Randy on S/V Blue Highway whom we’d met at a gathering of the Seven Seas Cruising Association. He was heading back to his home port of Naples, just south of Fort Myers Beach. At almost the same time we noticed a familiar name on our chartplotter from S/V Lucky Charm Too who was following in our wake. Turns out Rodney is single-handing back to Texas to reconnect with his family and lovely wife Audrey.

While we still miss Dan and Kath we continue to enjoy the network of friends and new acquaintances we have developed during our years cruising together. We have seen many wondrous sights and experienced some awesome and sometimes frightening weather, but the friends we’ve made and maintained over the years still stand out as the best part of our time cruising the seas together. As I write this I’m thinking about reconnecting with our friends on Kookabura and Nauti-Nauti in the western Caribbean. At the same time we look forward to seeing old friends and wonder about the new friends we’ll make along the way.